Happy Birthday Boys!!

Happy Birthday to my 2 favorite boys! Jase and Joel's birthday is 2 weeks apart so we decided to combine the parties. Planning their party is always fun. This year the boys and I decided on a beach theme since they both LOVE the ocean. We had 50 of our closest family and friends there to help us celebrate. We had an absolute blast, as usual! Here are a few of the captured moments.....

Summer Lovin

Family Photos. These photos capture the love of our family. So blessed. Jase and Joel recently celebrated another birthday. As they get older they have become closer and closer. Its so great to see their love for each other.

Summer Fun in Kansas City

Being the mom of two boys I have learned that having planned activities is the best way to keep them happy. Jase, 6, (in two days), is one that opperates best on a schedule. So to have fun, make some memories, and to keep them happy I decided the only way to make this summer the best I had to put together a calender.  Our summer kick off starts by taking a road trip to Destin Florida. This will be our second annual trip and we are pretty excited.

I have created a sort of "bucket list" of things to do then put them on the calender.

• Craft Mondays- a couple examples of what we will be doing is a birdfeeder and a stepping stone and our summer scrapbook (we plan on spending the rest of the day at the pool)
• Helping Tuesdays-this day we will go to Andrew's grandma to clean her house for her to help
• Stay at Home Wednesdays-this day is for us to play outside games (red light green light and ping pong balloons or a water balloon fight.
• Getway Thursdays- Since the boys have every toy a child could dream of having I decided that fo their birthdays to create a packet/book of tickets to:(link included)

                                                       1. Kansas City Zoo
                                                           2. Paradise Park
                                                           3. Midland RailRoad
                                                           4. Oceans of Fun
                                                           5. Little Monkey Bizness
                                                           6. Berry Patch
                                                           7. Overland Park Arboretum And Botanical-Gardens

•   Playground Hopping Fridays- we plan on visiting a different park around the area for a picnic and play which also includes going to the pool afterwards.

I plan on blogging once a week with pics that of that week.

So stay tuned and HAPPY SUMMERTIME!!

Finally!

According to my posts it says that December, 1st, 2011 was the last time I completed a blog post....wow. The winter months are very much my least favorite time of year. Something about being cooped up in the house and yucky weather causing illnesses that makes it difficult to be a stay at home mom. Luckily I have been busy with my business to keep my mind sane. My business has picked up 80% since a few months ago. So between doing projects found on pinterest, helping with websites and social media, and taking family and business photographs I have been busy, hence the 2 month absence on my blog. Its been fun and exciting to pick up a career in something that sort of fell in my lap. Being in the medical field for 10 years its been a good change. Using my creativity and organizational skills are my favorite pastime so this has been fun for me.


 Jase has really blossomed in his learning skills the last few months. The last months it was learning how to read and spell difficult words and lately it has been addition, adding 3 separate numbers together. When I asked his teacher if they were learning this in his class she said they do math but its just counting out bears. I asked him how he knew how to do this he said he just thinks about it in his head. To me this says that cutting back on watching SpongeBob to only Saturday mornings has helped! LOL!


Joel......oh Joel..he has turned into this little sweet Tasmanian devil. My house goes from being spotless to looking like a tornado hits it in about less than 15 mins of him being awake. He is such a busy little boy, exploring, going from one thing to the next. Recently he let go of a balloon he had been togging around, when he was outside it just floated away in the sky. So now everything we go outside he says "oh, no" bye "L" (he pronounces balloon by saying a strong L). Its cute.


This month I celebrated the BIG 30! Years ago I always thought "wow, 30 is old" but now that I'm 30 I don't feel it is at all. I had a great time celebrating with great friends at my favorite restaurant Brio on the Plaza. We had our own little room reserved. It was a classy dinner! The next night Andrew threw me a family celebration all while watching the Super Bowl. It was fun to be surrounded with all my family I love very much. My big celebration will be in Napa with my bestest friend in the world. Saying " I cant wait"is an understatement.


Andrew has been working late most nights and on the weekend so its been pretty chaotic around here luckily I have my aunt and cousin living with us for awhile so they have been a big help to me and allows for adult conversation. Cant wait for his busy season to be over.
Well hopefully it wont be 2 months until my next post.

Family Traditions!!

Thanksgiving 2011!!

What a fun week of family traditions and the beginning of the Holiday season. This time of year is my absolute favorite. I catch a lot of grief for enjoying this time of year so much. The thing is I really enjoy spending time with the people I love and this time of year more than any we get extra time to enjoy family and friends. This is the reason I enjoy it so much. Christmas always makes me feel like a kid again. The 'spirit' of Christmas is so full of joy and laughter but most of all LOVE, and I love love!!

Our Thanksgiving celebration started off with Jase's Thanksgiving Day feast at his school.

Thanksgiving Day was hosted at my house which I enjoyed very much. This year was special to me because my brother, the oldest of us 5, joined us with his wife and 3 kids. I hadn't seen him in 5 years so it was really nice to have him and his family.

Jenny, my sister in law and Mommy to be!!

My brother Albert, dad, and oldest brother Victor.

Paul, my father in law, and of course Jase!

My sweet girl Chloe wanted to join in for the picture.

Jase and my nephew Austin

Andrew carving the Turkey. It was delish thanks to AllRecipes.

Ahhh. My adorable husband! What a handsome man!!

Our traditions continue on....

The Saturday after Thanksgiving every year we road trip to Trimble MO to a farm called Reindeer Lane. Its always a fun time and just about every time we get lost. I thought that since we now have a navigation system in our vehicle that it would prevent us from getting lost.....i was wrong....well we weren't completely lost the navigation just had us turned around. We had a fun time despite the freezing wind chill. We found the perfect tree after about the 20th "oh this is it" and then realizing its imperfections. So Andrew and his father cut it down and off to see Santa we went. Inside Santa awaits with hot chocolate and popcorn. Joel wasn't too keen of Santa but we still enjoyed it. After getting pics taken we took a carriage ride around the farm which Jase and Joel had the honors in riding up front which they truley enjoyed.

Finally, the weekend ended by taking a trip to Crown Center. Joel enjoyed squeezing inside the little house. It was a fun time seeing the trains and neat toy store.

That evening the boys and I decorated the tree and I have a feeling I will be decorating it all season long with Joel taking the ornaments off. Ha.

It was a fun week and Im really excited to that the Christmas Season has began!

Halloween 2011!!

Every year we have a Halloween party. In the past it was during the day for all Jases' friends aka my friends and their kiddos but the last 2 years we have done it on Halloween night which has turned out pretty well. We have lived in our house almost 4 years and do not know most of our neighbors we decided to invite the entire neighborhood as well. We had a great turnout and met some fabulous new friends. We had TONS and food, candy, and treats and the Chiefs won as well so it was a GREAT night. Jase was a Bakugan for the 2nd year in a row and Joel was a doggy. I was surprised that Joel allowed me to even paint his face. He loved trick or treating for the first time, which for him meant running and scream up and down the neighborhood with the older kiddos.

We were having so much fun at the party I didn't even get a chance to take any pics which I'm very sad about cause there were some cute costumes. I did happen to capture a few of the boys before the party started.....